The Faery Tale Adventure was a computer game that I created for the Amiga in 1987. It was moderately popular for its day, and was ported to a number of platforms, including MS-DOS and the Sega Genesis.

I decided to write this account because, much to my surprise, there is still interest in the game - I occasionally get fan email or inquiries as to whether there will ever be a sequel. And so I thought it might be interesting to tell the story of how the game came to be, and what happened afterwards.

An account by David Joiner of a game he wrote for the Amiga. One of those stories that's just fun to read, no ifs and buts. Grab a coffee and enjoy.

I loved Faery Tale on the Amiga - one of my favourites that I played for hours and hours. I was a budding programmer and had started drafting a similar game for the C128. When I got an Amiga and saw Faery Tale it was everything and more that I wanted to accomplish.

It’s worth reading through the article to Part 3, where the author discusses making a sequel. I love the quasi-3D projection that he is working up. I’d love to see a fresh game that doesn’t rely on an off-the-shelf game engine like Unreal. Gaming is missing that sense of new and different experiences when every game is built using the same couple of engines.

It’s worth reading through the article to Part 3, where the author discusses making a sequel. I love the quasi-3D projection that he is working up. I’d love to see a fresh game that doesn’t rely on an off-the-shelf game engine like Unreal. Gaming is missing that sense of new and different experiences when every game is built using the same couple of engines.

Yea, but there are more developers able to produce game engines than there is a need for them. I suspect many of us may have worked on game engines as pet projects before having to get a real job to pay the bills. Like a lot of things, the trend has been mass consolidation with huge shares of the market being gobbled up by a few at the very top.

I think the author in the article was spot on, he could do it, but it would be a labor of love, not something that would make economic sense. Since he's retiring soon and by his own accounts doesn't need money, he could do it just for fun if he gets bored with retirement.

Personally, I feel like I have so many "retirement" projects I'd love to work on, but then there's a very real possibility I'll never earn enough to do so

I think there's a basic fallacy in there that it has to take money. I strongly believe someone can still construct their vision and profit from it, e.g. Minecraft. It might take forever, but it doesn't have to be a "risky venture," because it doesn't have to have thousands of dollars of capital investment just to work on fun things.
TL;DR Don't kill your dreams because the profit projections you haven't done are not in your favor by default

I think there's a basic fallacy in there that it has to take money. I strongly believe someone can still construct their vision and profit from it, e.g. Minecraft.

Well, it really depends. Most people cannot afford professional help, but if you can find a talented group of people willing to donate their time (at least at first), then sure they can build great things. I genuinely love to see what ordinary people can do. In a way, seeing what we can do with limited resources is far more impressive than the wealthy who might do greater things, but had more resources and financial advantages.

TL;DR Don't kill your dreams because the profit projections you haven't done are not in your favor by default

It's not that I disagree with this sentiment. However it is important not to mislead people about career choices based on the exceptions to the rule. It is very difficult for the majority of indy game devs to make a living. Of course, if you end up making money, great! But if you don't otherwise have the money to pay for shelter/food/healthcare/utilities/etc, then just be aware that most game devs that go the indy route end up making considerably less than a normal job.

I had never heard of the game, but I love this type of retrospective; I filled the boredom gaps of a few hours with this.
Last time I swung in, this post hadn't garnered any comments, and I just stopped back in to make sure it got one. Please don't stop posting this kind of thing. There's no controversy, so it doesn't reel in the majority that seem to live on that, but for those of us that just need a little fun obscura, this is the real content.
Thanks, Thom

I'm looking for a sequel to Sierra's Space Quest!!! I miss that game engine and comedy.

I enjoyed many sierra games as a kid. Although more recently I watched some of the retro gameplay and I noticed many sierra titles can be seriously faulted for all the pixel hunting and item combinations that had to be tediously brute forced (or just looked up). If I were replaying old games today, I'd probably prefer games in the style of "the 7th guest".